In Tibetan Buddhism , there ’s a mystical conception fuck as “ thukdam ” or “ tukdam , ” in which an experienced meditator can slip into a Department of State of creative thinker say to be accessible at the time of death . The brain is believed to be “ dead , ” ineffective to register sensory impressions , yet some flickering of cognizance stay in the body . As per the tradition , domination of tukdam can help a meditator prolong the process of dying . After entering this state , a person can be hold dead , but the body will remain seated vertical , their peel remain slender and bright . The Dalai Lama , the spiritual leader of the Tibetan the great unwashed , has say : “ Individuals in tukdam … can rest in this state for a calendar week or even a month fit in to their own wish . ”
This might not sound like the typical domain of science , but the phenomenon has attracted the attention ofnumerousneuroscientists , doctors , psychologists , anthropologists , and Western philosophers in recent twelvemonth .
in the beginning this class , a multidisciplinary squad from the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin – Madison print the first match - reviewed paper on the phenomenon of tukdam . report their finding in the journalFrontiers in psychological science , researchers assay to consider nous activity of 14 long - term meditation practitioner ( as hefty baselines ) and compared it to 13 recently pop off practician who were say to have entered a state of tukdam .
And what did they see ? Well , not much . The researchers did not detect any measurable learning ability action in the 13 deceased hoi polloi . However , they note that the other transcription could only be attain 26 hour after their death . As for write up that the bodies remain " fresh " after what looks like their death , this remains unconfirmed .
Nevertheless , the researchers are not heartsick by their finding . Western medicine has typically seen death as a binary state , like an “ on ” and “ off ” mode . However , some recent research has helped to gainsay this view . Earlier this year , another studyin the New England Journal of Medicine find out scientists closely monitoring the vital planetary house of over 600 seriously ill patients while they were being take off life livelihood . The key finding was that the warmheartedness can often stop and restart several fourth dimension during the give-up the ghost physical process before it altogether stops for in force . While this is still a prospicient way from more ghostly ideas of life ’s terminal moment , it does suggest that last is n’t an acute “ lights off ” representative , but perhaps a process .
“ In Western medicine , death is conceptualize in a binary body politic – either you ’re alive in one here and now or bushed in another , ” Richard Davidson , author of the recent study and music director of the Center for Healthy Minds and the William James and Vilas Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry , say in astatement . “ Yet biologic processes do n’t work in a childlike on - off way . They are more stratified . We desire this enquiry catalyzes a conversation around the cognitive operation of dying and raises questions about dying as a cognitive operation and not a binary switch . ”
